Taxi driver steals friend’s $50,000 powerball lottery ticket and tells the man he won only $4

By Mason White 5:22 PM January 28, 2016

Segura Rubelin (center)

By: Mahesh Sarin
(Scroll down for video) Police in New York, arrested a man for stealing his friend’s winning lottery ticket and switching it with another ticket.

Police said that Victor Castillo, handed two lottery tickets to his friend Segura Rubelin, and asked him to check if he won any money.

Rubelin, 40, who works as a cab driver, agreed, and he took the tickets to a deli in the Bronx. When he checked the tickets, he learned that one ticket was worth $50,000 while the other won just $4.

Rubelin couldn’t resist the temptation. He took the winning ticket and went to the lottery office to claim the prize of $50,000.

He then handed his friend $4 and said that his ticket won the small amount. However, when officials asked Rubelin where he bought the ticket, he did not know the location.

After giving officials the wrong location, they became suspicious. During an investigation, lottery officials reviewed surveillance video and realized that Castillo was the one who bought the winning ticket.

Rubelin was arrested and charged with multiple counts of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property, petit larceny, making false statements, offering a false instrument for filing and falsifying business records.

Castillo said that he was devastated when he learned that his friend stabbed him in the back. So far, he has not received any money from lottery officials.